[cloe]

We are looking to move close to Stamford, need to know good elementary schools close by. We would like to move to a town nice safe and housing cost not too high.The most important thing is good public schools.
Any advice. Thank you.

[jumper]

Your goals are good, but you need to give a little more information to get good guidance..How big a house? (# of Br and Ba), How much are you interested in spending? How old are the children? With these tidbits we can offer some direction.

[JayCT]

The Stamford area is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. The towns in the Stamford are are among the most desirable places to live. Towns like Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan are great towns with excellent schools, but be prepared to pay a lot to live there. Jay

[jjbradleynyc]

The Stamford schools are decent--but have seen better days. The superintendent is not necessarily heading the Stamford schools into the right direction. For living, Stamford is hard to beat. It's a small town with a big city feel. There are tremendous areas of the city, albeit very pricey. You will not be able to purchase a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home over 2,000 square feet for less than about $525,000. There are deals to be had, but those will be on homes with a concession here or there.

[notjustamom]

Stamford is a nice city to live in with a lot of amenities, but it is definitely a city with typical issues that you would find in a city. I lived in Stamford for many years. The schools there are really not among the best, many families send their children to area private schools which can be pricey. Of course as already mentioned, Stamford itself is very pricey. What is your price range? There are many towns with excellent schools outside Stamford that might appeal to you, with varying price ranges.

[KYcoyote]

Personally I'd recommend Long Ridge Rd and High Ridge Rd for desirable neighborhoods. Lots of pocket areas accessible through side streets with highly desirable homes.

[AmericanDreamer]

I just came back from a contract at Purdue Pharma for over a month, and I ended up making no money! While I highly recommend the place, even the motels were outrageous! My first two nights there I had to travel 10 miles north to pay $250 a night! I then found a Super8 a mile down the road that was $124 a night...including moldy carpet, shutdown Internet after 10 because " people are using the Internet to have 'dates' come to the motel'". To be in a $124 a night motel and have sleazy guests shows how expensive this city is. The people are great, the restaurants need to be explored extensively to find the good ones, but it is WAY too damn expensive!
Now...THIS was for a sleazy motel (and I extensively searched every weekend and every night by driving around and also looking at all the Internet sights!)
Now...MY suggestion is to go to Nyack or go north from Stanford past Bridgeport and start looking.
This is one heck of an expensive city, and I travel a great deal (sadly) and know these costs are extremely crazy.
I wish you the very best of luck and God Bless your family...the move...and wherever you end up.
Happiest of Holidays,
Alan

[TheKiwi]

Originally Posted by KYcoyote

Personally I'd recommend Long Ridge Rd and High Ridge Rd for desirable neighborhoods. Lots of pocket areas accessible through side streets with highly desirable homes.

Agreed. I live off Long Ridge Road and I love the area! Long Ridge Road rarely has bad traffic, and gets you quickly to the Merritt Parkway or downtown Stamford.

As for schools, Stamford schools are all pretty decent. I wouldn't be too worried about schools anywhere in Stamford.

[cdv]

Stamford has a very diverse population. Which is nice, but puts a lot of pressure on the school system. We have been living in the Stamford Pepper Ridge area for 7 years. It is a nice area mostly middle class and family oriented. House prices range from $500,000 - $1,500,000. Most of the kids go to their neighbourhood ES here. Which is not common. Stamford buses kids all over the place in order to achieve "racial" balance. Which we call now advantaged/disadvantaged balance. Stamford is in the middle of redistricting it's school districts. One of the ES may get closed and a new school opened. There are definitely schools that perform (Westover, Toquam, Northeast, Rogers, for example) better and a lot that perform bad. We believe, like a previous poster, that the school district under the new superintendant goes in the wrong direction. He is mainly concerned with closing the achievement gap and NCLB. That is were a majority of the funding is spend. If you fall within that group it may be a good setting. If you have kids that are above average you may be better off sending them to a private school, trying to get them into one of the magnets, or moving to a city with a better school district. We have one child in private and two in pulic elementary school. The private schools (non-cathlic) cost about $25,000 a year and are very hard and competitive to get into. The magnet schools are on a screwed lottery system. Depending on race, income, overcrowding of schools, you may get a slot or not regardless of your lottery number. Every ES is different. Some group out (our preferred situation), some don't, some have Spanish as a foreign language, some as afterschool option, some have none. There really is not a gifted and talented program, besides a once a week afternoon session at a different school. You may check out stamfordparents.org to find more about the schools, etc. Look at the CMT scores of schools. That is a good indicator of the level of achievement in those schools. Hope that helps. Also, contractor and labor prices are sky-high in Stamford/Faifield county. I usually budget $150-$200/h for plumber/electrician work, etc.

[contractor-guy]

Stamford is outrageously expensive. If you are looking for a reasonably priced area to live, Stamford is NOT it. Schools are decent, though some are better than others (see: post by CDV). I guess in some regards probably not a bad place to raise a family, the area seems awful conservative and reserved. Its hard to get a smile outta a local here.
The onle affordable place to live in Fairfield Cty. is Norwalk and Bridgeport, but then the schools there are --u-ugh!-- lets just say really bad......
Unless you have a great job or oodels of $ stamford and its schools are not for you...